The present invention relates to dispensers in general, and to devices for dispensing food service lids in particular.
In many convenience stores, restaurants, cafeterias, and other locations where beverages are sold, customers are allowed to serve themselves from beverage dispensers. The beverages are dispensed into disposable cups. To limit spilling of the beverages, especially for take-out orders, the cups are commonly sealed by the customer with a disposable plastic lid.
For reasons of convenience, efficiency, reduced waste, and improved hygiene, the beverage container lids are optimally dispensed from a lid dispenser which makes available a single lid while protecting the remaining supply of lids from contact with the customer. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,960,989 and 5,383,571, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein, lid dispensers are described which readily dispense single lids for consumer use. These lid dispensers are configured for ready adjustment to accommodate the wide variety of lid shapes and sizes found in the marketplace, in some cases without the use of tools.
However, lid dispensers which universally accommodate different types of lids will typically be more complex in structure, and hence more costly. Yet in most situations, a particular lid dispensing installation will remain configured for a particular type of lid for an extended length of time, and will only rarely be required to be changed. What is needed is a lid dispenser which is configurable by the manufacturer to dispense a particular lid, yet which is readily reconfigured by the unskilled field operator to accommodate a different type of lid when the situation requires.